James, serving as Operations Director for Excellent Journey
Pictures, will coordinate all development affairs and will manage the company’s
growing pool of subordinate staff as well as managing and enforcing the
internal hierarchy of the organization.
He will assist Kathy on all high-level negotiations and contract
establishments with outside key executives, associates and prominent entities
in the entertainment industry.
James’
extensive background as a leadership management and organizational development
trainer for the United States Air Force (he trained the Senior Leadership of
the combined services [Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines] of the Special Ops
Command) as well as for the largest private university in Minnesota will
provide EJP with strong leadership, communication, planning and execution
skills necessary to keep the machine of Excellent Journey Pictures moving
forward and on track.
As
the Writer-Director on Warrior’s Eve,
James has been intimately involved with the story from its conception and will
lead his team of creative filmmakers to capture the heart and soul of the story
on film. Passionately making things
happen with excellence has been his earmark.
James
began his search for his niche in the entertainment industry in college. Changing majors became a full time job and he
managed to graduate with a minor in multi-media presentations. Not knowing how to translate that to a job in
Minnesota, he returned to the Air Force to finish his
20 years of service. His film career
began in 1998 in
Minnesota as a film student at the
University of
St. Thomas’ film school. He Produced/Directed many industrial films
and documentaries while at the University. Following his relocation to
California in 2000 James immediately enrolled in a
year long course in Line Producing while developing his writing skills. His
first job opportunity came quite soon and he garnered the job of
UPM on the feature film, Coincidence.
Since
that time, James has produced, directed, and edited numerous promotional pieces
and shorts as well as producing a weekly multi-camera religious cable TV show.
Passionate about the filmmaking industry he has worked virtually every crew
position, personally learning each function of the filmmaking process. He has
worked as director of photography and as an editor on many projects. James’
greatest talent lies in his directing ability for which he has multiple
credits. Although his early focus was on expanding his expertise in the
technical aspect of directing, he has spent much time enhancing and building
his ability to obtain great performances from his actors. His collaborative
spirit and attention to detail creates an environment where magic happens. James has studied most recently with Judith
Weston (Directing Actors; The Director’s
Intuition).
His most recent
credit includes the directing of EJPs first documentary film, “Chasing Trains”,
which is currently in worldwide distribution.
In the theatrical film arena, he has most recently co-directed
(uncredited) EJP’s award winning short film, “Bag”.
